Rugby

Ulster dig out a hard-fought PRO12 victory over Treviso

Ulster's director of rugby Les Kiss was disappointed not to take a bonus point away from Italy on Saturday
Ulster's director of rugby Les Kiss was disappointed not to take a bonus point away from Italy on Saturday Ulster's director of rugby Les Kiss was disappointed not to take a bonus point away from Italy on Saturday

ULSTER dug out a hard-fought PRO12 victory against Treviso at the Stadio Comunale di Monigo, with scrum-half Ruan Piennaar notching 12 points.

An early try from Luke Marshall, after a period of Ulster pressure, had Less Kiss’s men up and running but it was the Italians who had the better of the opening period. Two Tommaso Allan kicks cut the margin to 10-6 by half-time, with Ulster’s other first half score coming from the boot of Pienaar with a penalty. Indeed the gap could have been reduced further had Allan not been guilty of a glaring penalty miss in the 16th minute.

On the restart, Ulster improved and lock Peter Browne made a big difference when he came on. Rob Herring went over at the back of a rolling maul 14 minutes into the half before centres Stuart Olding and Jacob Stockdale combined to put Pienaar away, with the number nine converting his own try to put 16 points between the sides.

Treviso’s cause had not been helped by the sin-binning of Filo Paulo in the 50th minute, when the lock had been adjudged to have delivered a late hit on Ulster replacement prop Ross Kane.

Herring was then sin-binned in the 67th minute and the Italians piled on the pressure, which Ulster did well to withstand until deep into injury time when Tommaso Benvenuti went over for a consolation score.

In truth, that score was merited, as, just minutes previously, Kieran Crowley's men had controversially been denied a try when referee Dudley Phillips ruled that Andrea Buondonno had knocked on before replacement scrum-half Edoardo Gori touched down. In between that disallowed effort and Benvenuti's score, steadfast Treviso defending prevented Ulster from registering a bonus-point clinching score.

Ulster boss Kiss was understandably frustrated that a bonus point had not been picked up, but gave credit to their opponents: "We probably left a point out there and we’re probably disappointed with that," he said.

"But we were playing a team that has improved. Kieran Crowley has come over and done a lot of work with them. Conor O’Shea is also over there doing some work with the provinces and they’re building a very good squad. We have to take our hat off to Treviso, they kept us honest all game, but we definitely feel that there was another try out there for us."

Champions Connacht sank to a second successive PRO12 defeat as Ospreys grabbed four tries in a 32-11 win at the Sportsground. The loss leaves Pat Lam's side at the bottom of the table.

Sam Davis for the Ospreys and Jack Carty for Connacht exchanged penalty kicks in the first quarter before scrum-half Rhys Webb went over for a converted try on 27 minutes to leave the Westerners just seven in arrears at the interval.

Connacht hit back when Carty added a close-range penalty shortly after half-time and then flanker Eoin McKeon was at the end of a fine attack to put the hosts a point ahead in the 56th minute.

But the final quarter belonged to the Swansea side with Tyler Ardron, Webb and Jeff Hassler all going over in the last ten minutes to take five points from the Galway visit.

Leinster, meanwhile, took nothing away from their clash with Glasgow Warriors, with Tommy Seymour the hero for the Scots with four tries. At the break, Leo Cullen's side led 19-12 with late scores from Josh van der Flier and Zane Kirchner, and although they extended that lead to 10 following a penalty from Joey Carbery after the break, they could not contain the Scottish side from there on.

During a 14-point scoring burst Seymour completed a hat-trick with two tries in the space of three minutes to leave Leinster trailing by four entering the final quarter. Carbery did bring it back to a one point game before Glasgow broke through again with Seymour taking an inside ball from Pyrgos to go under the posts for his fourth try with just over five minutes left.

Glasgow top the PRO12 table on maximum points from two games, with Leinster in mid-table with just four points from two games.